Hillary Clinton's long history in the public eye

Hillary Rodham Clinton participates in a roundtable discussion with students and educators during a campaign event at the Kirkwood Community College April 14, 2015 in Monticello, Iowa.
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Reintroducing herself to voters as a 2016 presidential candidate may be a challenge for Clinton, who's been making headlines for decades. Here's a look at some of the most memorable Hillary Rodham Clinton quotes from her decades as a public figure - from commencement speaker to first lady to senator to presidential candidate to secretary of state.

1969: "The Art of the Possible"

As a member of the Wellesley student body speaking to the Class of 1969, Hillary Rodham publicly rebuked a Republican Senator on the platform, and earned a seven-minute standing ovation for her impassioned speech.

"For too long, those who lead us have viewed politics as the art of the possible," Hillary Rodham said to the Wellesley graduating class of 1969. "The challenge that faces them and us - now - is to practice politics at the art of making possible what appears to be impossible."

Rodham didn't hold back when, as a graduating student herself, she delivered the commencement address for her peers. She criticized a Republican senator in her remarks, which earned a seven-minute standing ovation and a mention in Life magazine.

1992: "I'm not... standin’ by my man like Tammy Wynette"

Ark. Governor Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Clinton, presented a united front on CBS' "60 Minutes," in response to allegations that the man running for president had engaged in a 12-year extramarital affair with Gennifer Flowers.

"I'm not sitting here some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette. I'm sitting here because I love him, and I respect him."

1992: "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies"

Democratic vice-presidential candidate Al Gore; his wife, Tipper Gore; presidential candidate Bill Clinton; and his wife, Hillary Clinton, say goodbye to supporters July 17, 1992 before boarding a bus in New York. The Democratic team began the general campaign with a cross-country bus caravan from New York to St. Louis.
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"I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession which I entered before my husband was in public life."

When Bill Clinton's Democratic primary challenger, California Gov. Jerry Brown, accused Bill Clinton of funnelling money through his wife's law firm for state business, Hillary Clinton retorted that it was not true -- she was simply trying to have her own career.

1995: "Human rights are women’s rights"

First Lady Hillary Clinton speaks at the "Women and Health" seminar sponsored by the World Health Organization at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women September 5, 1995, in Beijing.
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"If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights once and for all."

When Hillary Clinton addressed the United Nations' Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, she helped set the bar for the United States' expectations of China as the two nations normalized relations. Throughout her career, Clinton has continued to champion on women's rights.

1998: "Vast right-wing conspiracy"

First Lady Hillary Clinton delivers a speech promoting education as her husband US President Bill Clinton listens during an announcement 26 January at the White House in Washington, DC. Clinton, who is embroiled in a scandal about an alleged affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, vehemently denied the allegations saying, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time."
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"The great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president."

On NBC's Today Show in January 1998, Hillary Clinton dismissed stories about Bill Clinton's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky as a "feeding frenzy" driven by an "intense political agenda." Her charge of a "vast right-wing conspiracy" continues to be a punchline for conservatives.

2003: “I stand by the vote”

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, speaks at the Council of Foreign Relations December 15, 2003 in New York City.
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"I was one who supported giving President Bush the authority, if necessary, to use force against Saddam Hussein. I believe that that was the right vote. I have had many disputes and disagreements with the administration over how that authority has been used, but I stand by the vote to provide the authority because I think it was a necessary step in order to maximize the outcome that did occur in the Security Council with the unanimous vote to send in inspectors."

Speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations in 2003, Hillary Clinton said she stood by her 2002 vote to give President Bush the authority to launch the war in Iraq. That vote would come back to haunt her during the 2008 campaign as then-Sen. Barack Obama won support for his anti-war stance.

In her 2014 memoir, "Hard Choices," Clinton wrote, "I thought I had acted in good faith and made the best decision I could with the information I had. And I wasn't alone in getting it wrong. But I still got it wrong. Plain and simple."

2008: "18 million cracks in the glass ceiling"

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, thanks her supporters after speaking at the National Building Museum June 7, 2008 in Washington, DC. Clinton thanked her supporters for standing behind her in one of the longest Democratic primary seasons in history.
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"Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it has about 18 million cracks in it and the light is shining through like never before."

2013: "What difference does it make?"

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the September 11, 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya, during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 23, 2013.
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"We had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or because of guys out for a walk one night and decided to go kill some Americans? At this point what difference does it make, Senator?"

"Don't let anybody tell you that it's corporations and businesses that create jobs."

During a rally for a Massachusetts Democratic gubernatorial candidate in 2014, Clinton got into trouble while trying to critique the Republican economic platform and argue that the theory of trickle-down economics doesn't work. Later said she "short-handed" the point she was trying to make. "Our economy grows when businesses and entrepreneurs create good-paying jobs here in an America where workers and families are empowered to build from the bottom up and the middle out, not when we hand out tax breaks for corporations that outsource jobs or stash their profits overseas," she said a few days later.